DPS attendance increases sharply

As of Monday, September 12, Detroit Public Schools successfully took attendance for 55,838 students, an increase of more than 12,000 students over the past five school days, and a sharp increase from opening day when 43,000 students were counted, which was itself a near doubling of first day attendance a year ago.

The district credits efforts with this increase to enrollment awareness, door-to-door parent organizer and attendance agent outreach, and multiple levels of communications to parents. The current attendance reflects 85% of the targeted budget total of 65,834 students for this fall term based on demographer’s projections. This rate is also significantly higher than one year ago, when the attendance rate on the fifth day of school was 69%.

“Continued outreach directly to parents, combined with a successful opening week during which there was considerably less transferring across schools, has led to this progress,” said Emergency Manager Roy S. Roberts. “Now our message to parents whose children have still not gotten back to school: Get your child in school. No excuses. Better safety, Netbooks, more reading and math, parent portal and newer buildings…those resources cannot be provided if a child is not in school.”